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Steve is the son of Nate and Marj Saint. His dad was one of the five missionaries who were speared to death by some of the people of the Woadani tribe in Ecuador in 1956. This tribe is better known as the 'Auca Indians' by the general public.
After this event Steve's aunt Rachel was able to go to this tribe accompanied by a woman who had left the tribe and gone to the white people. From this woman Rachel learned some of their language. After she felt it was safe for Steve to come with her he went there to live with her and learned how to live with the Woadani and survive as they did. Most of his teenage years he lived there.
He was baptized by two men who were involved in the killing of his father.
After his aunt's funeral he was invited by the tribe to come back with his
family and live with them. By this time he was married and had four
children who were in their upper teens or early twenties but not married.
They had previously spent some time in Mali, Africa. It took his wife
Ginny some time before she could agree to this move but the children
were quite excited about this adventure in their lives.
They were able to help the Woadani people advance to the place where
they were able to build an airstrip, obtain their own airplane and one of
their own men learned to fly it. This airplane was a super light aircraft
which could be disassembled in a few hours, packaged and sent to
Ecuador on an American airline which had become very accommodating
over the years.
Steve tells of bringing two of the Woadani to the United States and how
he helped them adjust to life in the States. He also took them to a World
Church Conference in Amsterdam where they met people from many
other countries.
- by Anna Kroeker
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